Man who molested girl during Ramadan tells court he is sorry

The man followed the girl around the supermarket then pounced on her

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A man who sexually molested a girl at a supermarket during Ramadan told Dubai Criminal Court that he has repented.

“What I have done was wrong and I deeply regret it,” the Indian worker, 24, told the judge.

Prosecutors said that on May 29, the girl, 13, was with her mother at a supermarket in Naif.

The girl left her mother’s side to find some shopping items when she noticed a man following her, records show.

“I thought it was nothing but, seconds later, someone came up from behind me, hugged me against my will, then touched my privates and ran away,” said the Emirati girl.

She ran to her mother and told her what happened. Her mother called police at once. “She was terrified and shaking,” her mother said.

While waiting for police to arrive, the mother asked the manager of the supermarket to show her the CCTV footage.

“We saw the whole incident caught on camera from the moment the offender started following her,” she said.

Police circulated a notice with a description of the suspect and arrested him in the same area a few weeks later. Court records did not disclose how he came to be arrested.

At Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday, the defendant admitted a sex-assault charge and said he was sorry.

A verdict is expected on July 31.